1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a network of message processing systems and, more particularly, to a network for voice mail processing systems capable of connecting such systems throughout the world without using dedicated lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, telephone companies, particularly in North America, have begun providing a number of information services to subscribers. A common service (a data processing service) is to store and forward voice mail messages. Examples of voice mail systems which enable public telephone companies to provide voice mail services are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,371,752; 4,580,012; 4,581,486; 4,585,906; and 4,602,129. Other systems, including the capability of storing other types of messages such as E-mail and facsimile are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,029,199; 5,193,110; and 5,263,080 which are assigned to Boston Technology, Inc. and are incorporated herein by reference. These systems are connected to a central office of a local telephone company or to a private branch exchange or other system handling calls for a large number of telephones. When one of the telephones serviced by the central office or other system is not answered, the calling party is given an opportunity to leave a telephone message which is stored for later reproduction by the user of the called telephone. The voice mailbox owner is given the ability to reproduce, store or dispose of the message. One of the ways in which a message may be disposed or reproduced is to forward the message to another user.
Several of these systems may be connected at various nodes (central office exchanges) in a telephone network. The nodes may all be within a single local telephone company, or in several different local telephone companies, such as those within one or more of the regional Bell companies. At the present time, a user may send a message to another user on the same data processing system, i.e., at the same node, but no method currently exists for easily transferring messages from a user on one data processing system to a user having a voice mailbox on another data processing system at a different node of the telephone system.
This node forwarding or sending limitation creates significant problems for users which are spread out over geographically diverse areas. For example, a large company may have offices in different cities in different area codes and possibly served by different regional telephone companies. As a result, the various offices of the company are served by different voice mail systems. A company employee, using the currently available systems, cannot forward a message to another employee whose voice mailbox is in another system. What is needed is a system which will integrate diverse types of such data processing systems that are located in diverse geographic locations.